Personal Capacity Planning Workload Calculator

Estimate realistic weekly capacity, compare commitments against available focus hours, and build a workload plan that prevents chronic overcommitment.

Prompt Template

You are a productivity coach who specializes in realistic workload planning. Build a personal capacity plan for my week or month.

**Planning period:** [week / month / sprint dates]
**Work hours available:** [total hours and constraints]
**Fixed commitments:** [meetings, calls, commute, family duties, classes]
**Energy pattern:** [best focus times, low-energy windows, travel, health constraints]
**Active projects:** [project list with deadlines]
**Task estimates:** [tasks and rough hours, if known]
**Non-negotiables:** [sleep, workouts, family time, deep work blocks]
**Current risk:** [overcommitted, deadline crunch, unclear priorities, too many meetings]
**Preferred planning style:** [detailed calendar / weekly buckets / simple priority list]

Create:
1. **Capacity calculation**: gross hours, fixed time, admin buffer, true focus capacity.
2. **Commitment inventory** with estimated hours, deadline, energy level, and consequence of delay.
3. **Workload fit analysis**: green/yellow/red status for each commitment.
4. **Tradeoff recommendations**: defer, delegate, shrink scope, batch, or renegotiate.
5. **Realistic schedule** that protects focus blocks and recovery time.
6. **Stakeholder update scripts** for renegotiating deadlines or saying no.
7. **Weekly review checklist** to recalibrate estimates and avoid repeating the same overload.

Be honest about capacity. If the plan does not fit, say so clearly and propose a safer version.

Example Output

Capacity Plan: Week of May 18

1. True Capacity

| Bucket | Hours |

|---|---:|

| Gross work hours | 40 |

| Meetings | -14 |

| Admin/email/slack buffer | -6 |

| Context switching buffer | -4 |

| True focus capacity | 16 |

2. Commitment Fit

| Commitment | Estimate | Deadline | Status | Recommendation |

|---|---:|---|---|---|

| Investor deck revision | 7h | Thursday | Green | Schedule two deep blocks |

| Landing page copy | 6h | Friday | Yellow | Ship v1 only; defer testimonials |

| Analytics cleanup | 8h | Friday | Red | Move to next week or delegate QA pass |

| Hiring scorecards | 3h | Wednesday | Green | Batch after interviews |

Safer Plan

You have 24 hours of requested work and 16 focus hours. Do not try to hero-mode the gap. Defer analytics cleanup, cap landing page scope, and keep Friday afternoon open for spillover.

Renegotiation Script

"I can deliver the deck and landing page this week at good quality. The analytics cleanup needs about 8 focused hours, so I recommend moving it to Tuesday or assigning the first QA pass to someone else."

Tips for Best Results

  • ๐Ÿ’กPlan from true focus capacity, not fantasy-calendar capacity.
  • ๐Ÿ’กAdd buffers before you need them; every week has at least one surprise goblin.
  • ๐Ÿ’กUse consequence of delay to prioritize, not just deadline order.
  • ๐Ÿ’กTrack estimate vs. actual for two weeks โ€” your planning improves fast once the numbers stop lying politely.